H. G. Wells

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Standard Name: Wells, H. G.
HGW began writing in his childhood and publishing just before the close of the nineteenth century. He was a journalist, novelist, historian and autobiographer, whose favourite fictional genres are science fiction on one hand and on the other realistic explorations of social and political conditions, including women's issues.

Connections

Connections Sort descending Author name Excerpt
Birth Elizabeth Oxenbridge Lady Tyrwhit
Elizabeth Oxenbridge (later Lady Tyrwhit) was born at a manor called Brede Place (formerly Forde Place), at the village of Brede in East Sussex, into a family of five children (as well as an...
Cultural formation Elizabeth von Arnim
Born middle-class and presumably white in Australia when it was part of the British Empire, EA later lived in England, Germany, Switzerland, and America. Her experiences in each of these places...
Cultural formation Amber Reeves
Born a New Zealander, she clearly regarded herself later in life as English. Her parents were highly educated professionals. Her mother was a suffragist, and both parents became members of the Fabian Society (founded three...
Dedications G. B. Stern
GBS dedicated to H. G. Wells her first-world-war novel Children of No Man's Land.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
197
Education Mary Gawthorpe
MG 's later educational endeavours continued through 1904-5, running concurrently with teaching (as the family breadwinner) and increasing political activity. She felt as if this was a private obsession, which would be incomprehensible to anyone...
Education Fay Weldon
FW learned to read at three: I remember . . . the way the letters suddenly made sense.
Weldon, Fay. Auto da Fay. Flamingo, 2002.
24
After her grandmother joined the family in 1942 she was able to borrow adult books from...
Education Dora Russell
Her subjects included German and French, philosophy and literature, particularly such writers as Kant , Heine , Pascal , Racine , and Voltaire . Among English authors, she admired George Meredith (Modern Love))...
Education Olivia Manning
At home Olivia was encouraged to love poetry, learned to read by the time she was four, and was later subjected to piano lessons which taught her nothing. As a teenager and thinking of herself...
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth von Arnim
EA and H. G. Wells were lovers, though the relationship was strained: Jane Wells did not intend to divorce her husband, and it was during this time that he became involved with Rebecca West as...
Family and Intimate relationships E. Nesbit
In 1886, the year of EN 's first stillbirth, her close friend Alice Hoatson became her husband's mistress. Alice then moved in with the Blands: ostensibly to help look after their children, since she was...
Family and Intimate relationships Dorothy Richardson
Although Moffatt disapproved of her affair with Wells , DR conducted it from their shared apartment. She and Wells both kept the affair a secret. Wells had many affairs, several of them with women writers...
Family and Intimate relationships Amber Reeves
AR and the young Fabian lawyer George Rivers Blanco White were married; she accepted his proposal because she was pregnant by H. G. Wells .
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson, 1987.
314
Family and Intimate relationships Rebecca West
Nineteen-year-old RW met H. G. Wells for the first time, shortly after she panned his novel Marriage in The Freewoman.
Rollyson, Carl. Rebecca West: A Saga of the Century. Hodder and Stoughton, 1995.
21-3
Family and Intimate relationships Rebecca West
RW had a son by H. G. Wells : Anthony Panther West , as a result of an unplanned, extramarital pregnancy.
Rollyson, Carl. Rebecca West: A Saga of the Century. Hodder and Stoughton, 1995.
35-8
Hammond, John Richard. H. G. Wells and Rebecca West. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991.
78, 84
Family and Intimate relationships Iris Tree
Writer, critic, and caricaturist Sir Max Beerbohm was IT 's half-uncle, the youngest son from Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's father's second marriage. Best remembered for his drawings and caricatures of the famous, Beerbohm also wrote...

Timeline

1897: With her publication of Grains of Sense,...

Women writers item

1897

With her publication of Grains of Sense, philosopher Victoria, Lady Welby , shifted from theology towards a more academic and analytic study of meaning.
Smith, Sean, archivist. “Letter from George Bernard Shaw to Lady Welby, Oct. 16, 1907”. York University: York University Gazette online: From the archives, 26 Jan. 2000.
Myers, William Andrew. “Victoria, Lady Welby 1837-1912”. Contemporary Women Philosophers, 1900-Today, edited by Mary Ellen Waithe, Kluwer, 1995, pp. 1-24.
4

2 September 1914: The British War Propaganda Bureau (newly...

Writing climate item

2 September 1914

The British War Propaganda Bureau (newly formed along the lines of a similar body in Germany) summoned twenty-five writers to discuss the production of texts that would boost national feeling and the war effort.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.

1915: H. G. Wells became vice-president of the...

Building item

1915

H. G. Wells became vice-president of the Malthusian League .
Ledbetter, Rosanna. A History of the Malthusian League: 1877-1927. Ohio State University Press, 1976.
213

22 June 1925: The Film Society was incorporated in London,...

Building item

22 June 1925

The Film Society was incorporated in London, where it operated until 1939.
Maclean, Caroline. “Gloomy Sunday Afternoons”. London Review of Books, Vol.
31
, 10 Sept. 2009, pp. 28-9.
29

By October 1926: The BBC named Hilda Matheson as its first...

Building item

By October 1926

The BBC named Hilda Matheson as its first Director of Talks, one of the most highly paid jobs for a woman in any organisation at that time,
Carney, Michael. Stoker. Published by the author, 1999.
23
as her biographer puts it.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Carney, Michael. Stoker. Published by the author, 1999.
29, 23

23 August 1927: Two Italian immigrants to the USA, Nicola...

National or international item

23 August 1927

Two Italian immigrants to the USA, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti , were executed amid international furore for shooting dead a paymaster and a security guard outside a factory at South Braintree.
Cole, David. “Radical Aliens”. London Review of Books, Vol.
31
, No. 20, 22 Oct. 2009, pp. 26-7.
26-7

After February 1932: An appeal of Count Potocki of Montalk's case...

Writing climate item

After February 1932

An appeal of Count Potocki of Montalk 's case was heard; and although he was not cleared, an advance in obscene libel cases was made.
Craig, Alec. The Banned Books of England and Other Countries. George Allen and Unwin, 1962.
89-90

July 1945: Vannevar Bush's article on information theory...

Building item

July 1945

Vannevar Bush 's article on information theory entitled As We May Think was published in Atlantic Monthly.
Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray. Computer. Basic Books, 1996.
285-7

Texts

Wells, H. G. A Short History of the World. Cassell, 1922.
Wells, H. G. Ann Veronica. T. Fisher Unwin, 1909.
Wells, H. G. Experiment in Autobiography. V. Gollancz; Cresset Press, 1934, 2 vols.
Wells, H. G. Marriage. MacMillan, 1912.
Wells, H. G. The Invisible Man. C. Arthur Pearson, 1897.
Wells, H. G. The Island of Dr. Moreau. W. Heinemann, 1896.
Wells, H. G. The New Machiavelli. John Lane, 1911.
Wells, H. G., and James Francis Horrabin. The Outline of History. Editors Barker, Ernest et al., George Newnes, 1919, 24 vols.
Wells, H. G. The Time Machine. W. Heinemann, 1895.
Wells, H. G. The War of the Worlds. W. Heinemann, 1898.
Wells, H. G. Tono-Bungay. MacMillan, 1909.